Audio: Mitch Joel addressing the OPMA on the new reality of the web (2 ½ minutes)

» You can see Kent Anderson's Slides here.

Meeting Summary by Marla Weingarten

For those among us still grappling to understand how online marketing can maximize the success of our brands, the OPMA presented a duo of excellent speakers for its October Education Day Breakfast. Between these two online experts, the audience was given a clear view of how the digital world is creating entirely new opportunities for information sharing.

Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image

Mitch Joel, described by Marketing Magazine as “Canada’s rock star of digital marketing,” is a blogger, podcaster, and expert on interactive marketing. He opened his presentation to OPMA members and guests with the declaration that we are living in a new world – we are experiencing a time of renaissance!

Although we have entered a new digital reality, Joel pointed out that many marketers, especially those in the pharmaceutical industry, are still trying to force traditional marketing methods into this modern technology. As a result, we are not being as effective as we could be.

Joel refers to the web as “Six Pixels of Separation” in that we are all intrinsically connected. He noted that author Clay Shirky identifies three types of communication in his book, “Here Comes Everybody”:

• One-way communication that occurred at the time of the industrial revolution;
• Two-way communication which transpired as a result of the telephone; and,
• Group Expression— a whole new type of communication that was introduced by the web.

Marketing methods that continue to force one-way or two-way communications into this environment of Group Expression are no longer effective. In the online world, “Marketing communications is about real interaction between real people.” The pharmaceutical industry needs to start to foster these online communities. Mitch illustrated the importance of community users by pointing out that 43% of internet users who are members of online communities feel as strongly about their virtual world as they do about their real world.

As marketers, we think of “mass media” as the established communication model that has been around for a very long time. However, Joel explained, this model has really only been popular for the last 50 years or so. Prior to mass media, word of mouth marketing was the chief vehicle for communication. “Today, the web IS word of mouth marketing – only with a different distribution platform.”

Marketers like those in the pharmaceutical industry continue to embrace the mass media model of “how many people can we reach?” Whereas the real function of the web is about “WHO can we reach?”

"Being connected is now a societal shift and is part of who we are today,” says Joel. He identifies six ways to think differently:

1. Think in terms of tribes. Someone who is affected by an illness will have a tribe of people looking for information. This tribe is inter-generational, consisting of parents, children, friends and other relatives. We will be more successful marketers if we can connect more effectively to the tribe.
2. Everything is “with” not "instead of.” We need to continue with traditional marketing channels as well as understand how to make the most beneficial use of the web.
3. Don’t be fleeting. We need to shift from a campaign mentality to one of commitment. We need to commit to our customers, enabling them to build, to share and to grow.
4. Earn the right to get your users out of the “lurker mode” (people who are on site but are not making a connection). The power of Web 2.0 sites like Wikipedia is a result of the value that people place on the site and thus their willingness to create content.
5. It’s attitudinal not generational – no one is too old for the ideal use of the web.
6. Try it! Upload a video to You Tube now – do something!

In closing, Joel reinforced that the pharma industry has great products and great messages. We need to understand where our community is and help these people connect to one another. In this way we can empower them to make choices and to understand their options.

Kent Anderson of NEJM and Journal Watch, revealed how one of the oldest brands in medicine—that has relied on user generated content for 196 years—is now adapting to the new digital world.

Kent Anderson - Executive Director, Business and Product Development, The New England Journal of Medicine

In the “old journal world”, Kent explains, publishers would create a product that was a physical good. After reviewing a hard copy of a publication, a reader would either save the journal, throw it away or possibly photocopy certain data. Today, journals are more conceptual and are not always presented as a finished good. The information is often consumed by means of a podcast, iphone or social network.
 
He illustrated how physician online communities are emerging rapidly. A recent survey revealed that physicians have the desire to use the web (54%) vs. print (46%) and this gap is quickly growing wider. As well, MDs are listening to medical podcasts, watching online videos, reading blogs, and visiting product sites. 77% of connected MDs use social media (podcasts, blogs, etc.) for medical content.

This new digital frontier is changing the world of publishing. Anderson imparted how comfortable consumers are with e-commerce and as a result, the NEJM website has become the best channel to sell print. “The real opportunity is to get to where there is more attention then there is advertising.”

Web 1.0 occurred at a time when the modem ruled, when documents were put online by means of PDF files, and when users clicked from page to page. However, according to Anderson, bandwidth changed everything and now we have web 2.0, where the web is no longer a destination but is a platform. “Instead of pages, people go to the web for experiences.” In essence “web 1.0 was putting content online and web 2.0 is putting people online.”

Kent illustrates how the NEJM has been experimenting with the internet and has been successful with the following new engagement tools:

• A medical podcast on itunes including a recently introduced, “Emitting Diagnosis” as a weekly update;
• “How to” procedures presented on video;“Clinical Decisions,” where the audience reviews a case on line and votes on treatment options (NEJM obtains comments from across the globe and graphs the results to compare aggregate views from each country);
• “Image Challenges,” where physicians submit their response to an image quiz and can immediately obtain an answer;
• The launch of facebook applications with podcasts and recent articles.

In summary, Anderson emphasized how the editorial and publishing realities in the new digital age can be opportunities if publishers are willing to experiment. “The web is not a place, it is a platform. Our audience is online and we need to be where our audience is.”

About the author:
Marla Weingarten is a marketing consultant, specializing in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. She can be reached at marla.weingarten@sympatico.ca.